Selling Girls Scout cookies helps teach valuable lessons

No matter if you prefer the gooey Samoas, crisp Thin Mints or the peanut-buttery Do-si-dos, all your favorite Girl Scout cookies are back for the annual fundraiser, which kicked off Saturday.

LISA KAPPS

No matter if you prefer the gooey Samoas, crisp Thin Mints or the peanut-buttery Do-si-dos, all your favorite Girl Scout cookies are back for the annual fundraiser, which kicked off Saturday.

Last week, local Girl Scouts were setting their goals and planning their strategies for this year’s sale.

BellaDonna Sins, a 13-year-old Girl Scout, sold about 500 boxes last year to her family, going door-to-door and selling at restaurants.

She and the other members of Troop 20067 in New Hartford also went to Sangertown Square dressed as Girl Scout cookies, where they danced for the crowd as they sold cookies.

“Asking family is pretty reliable because they know you,” BellaDonna said, “and the mall is pretty good because there’s a lot of people.”

Elyse Muder, a Juliette (a Girl Scout who’s not a member of a troop, named for Girl Scouts founder Juliette Gordon Low) from New Hartford, said she usually contacts friends and family, sells door-to-door and gives the order form to her father to take to work.

“I also sell at my church,” she said. “I do a little booth at my church every Sunday.”

Of those strategies, the 11-year-old said, selling at church and to her father’s co-workers are usually the most successful.

Elyse said she usually sets her goal at around 200 boxes, adding, “and sometimes, I even sell more than that.”

“I like to work toward the bigger prizes,” Elyse said.

At various sales levels, Girl Scouts are recognized with badges and prizes. Scouts also can earn Cookie Dough Cards, which they can redeem to help pay for Girl Scout dues, programming or summer camp.

But it’s about more than prizes, trips and badges – or even the cookies.

The fundraiser helps Scouts develop five skills: goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills and business ethics, according to the Girl Scouts website.

And Tamie Sins, leader of troop 20067, has seen that first hand.

“They learn how to set a goal,” Sins said.

For example, last year, her troop decided what activities it wanted to do, and figured out how many boxes of cookies it would have to sell for the troop to pay the fees.

When they met the goal of selling more than 1,000 boxes, the girls were able to see the direct relationship with their planning, hard work and the fun they had, she said.

Elyse said she’s seen that, too.

“Well, I’ve learned that you should really try hard to work towards your goals,” she said.

Sins said the fundraiser “also builds their self-confidence.”

She said as she watches the girls sell, she can see them standing up straighter, speaking with more authority.

“I think I learned not to be shy around people, and when they say, ‘No,’ you just go to the next person,” BellaDonna said.